Cloves (Lavanga) is a stimulant, aromatic, antispasmodic, carminative, appetisr, digestive, diaphoretic, blood purifier and allays kapha.
It has many medicinal properties, the dry flower buds as well as oil being used.
It is a well – known home remedy. Cotton moistened with one or two drops of clove oil and kept in dental cavities helps to relieve toothache. Clove oil is applied externally in rheumatic pains, sciatica, headache and lumbago.
A very well – known remedy, Lavangadi Vati, chewed in the mouth relieves sore throat, dry cough, foul breath and tonsillitis. The clove heated over a flame is kept in the mouth and its juice swallowed. It relieves sore throat, it also strengthens the gums.
Cloves, ginger, ajawayan and rock salt all in equal parts, made into 4 grains pills and taken one pill after the principal meals, is a useful remedy in indigestion.
The powder of cloves, dry ginger, black pepper and fried borax dissolved in the mouth and swallowed relieves bronchitis.
Pills made from a mixture of cloves, sandalwood paste, saffron and mercuric chloride serve as a tonic in syphilitic affections.
Clove oil is widely used in perfumery and in medicinal preparations to remove any disagreeable taste.
Cloves also occupy an important place in Indian cooking. It contains a volatile oil which is used in condiments.
